St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-09-08
AN APPROPRIATENESS LIBEL.

were probably amused at the pitiable
whine it set up because the Grand Army
veterans were denouncing its ridiculous
attempt to wave the bloody shirt. But
there was no amusement for its readers
in the grossly libelous article on ST.
Paul, in which this city was published
to the world as a modern Sodom. \
more outrageous libel on a respectable
community WAS never perpetrated, nor
falSer accusation made against vir-
tuouS people than when the Pioneer
Press denominated st. Paul as a city
which is IA paradise for gam
blers and the crowded haunt of
those given over to sensual vice"
We do not claim that st. Paul is wholly
exempt from the vices which are COM
mon to huma nifty. 1t would not be a
city of human beings if it were so. But
we do claim and assert that there is not
another city in the American union
equal to it in purity and responsibility.
This may seem to some to be broad as
sertion. Nevertheless it is capable of
demonstration. For illustration COM
pare it with Philadelphia and Boston,
whose Quaker and Puritan populations
would naturally suggest purity in the
administration of their respective gov
ernmentS, as well as in their social con-
ditionS. And yet there is more vice in
Boston or Philadelphia in one day than
there is IL st. Paul in year. Gambling
dens are running full blast all the year
round, Sundays not excepted, land per-
son standing on fremont street in Boston
or Chestnut street in Philadelphia will
see more street walkers in one evening
than have been seen in st. Paul and
Minneapolis together during the entire
existence of the two cities. And yet
nobody has ever felt called upon to in
dulge in a wholesale denunciation of
either Boston OF Philadelphia or to brand
either city as "a paradise of gamblers
and crowded haunt of those given
over to sensual vice" When the Pho
neer Press asserts that a decent woman
is not safe on the streets of st. Paul III
the evening, and that our business
buildings are converted into houses of
prostitution, it gives utterance to an alb
Solute and unqualified falSehOod. There
may be exceptional cases where de-
cent woman who goes out alone on the
streets in the night time may receive an
insult, or an abandoned person may Sc
cure lodging room in some reputable
neighbOrhOOd. Such things occur in ev-
cry community and will continue to oc-
cur until the millennium shall dawn. But
that fact is no excuse for the wholesale
Indictment which the Pioneer Press
preferred against this city in its yester-
days issue. If ST. Paul was such all
apoState city as the Pioneer Press repre-
SCENTS it to be no respectable person
could afford to live in it. And as there
was no other excuse or provocation for
its maligning philippe the conclusion
must be that it wanted to deter respecta-
bic people from making their homes here.
In an interview with the GLOBE this
morning the chief of police makes
clear and truthful statement respecting
the morality of st. Paul. There is not
a gambling house in the city, nor is
there card turned unless 1t is done in
the hotels or private residences where
the police have no right to intrude.
Where is there another city of which as
much can be said? If a gentleman in
vites party of friends into his parlor
and they engage in quiet game of poker,
by what authority can the police i. ter
fere to break up the game Or to arrest the
players? Chief CLARK also states what
efforts are made by his department to
suppress the social evil" and there
can be no cause for grlImbling at what
he has done and is doing. No other city
in the country controls and regulates
the social evil more successfully than
st. Paul has done.
And yet, in the face of facts which
every one knows to be facts, the Pho
neer Press has gratified it's dyspeptic fit
by giving vent to the most malignant
and vituperative editorial publication
that ever maligned a respectable
community. Its article is an liz
suit to the whole population
of st. Paul. Ours is not city of black
guards and gamblers as our jaundiced
neighbor would have the world believe.
1t is populated by respectable. indus
trious people who are too busy to find
time for indulgence in the luxurious
vices. Such vices only come of idle
ness. The conditions here are not con-
ducive to such corrupt debasement as
the Pioneer Press pictures. There is
too much of rush and hustle. A
busy people, with their hands full of
work, are not the ones to go down to
the depths of depravity. Such scenes
as were once witnessed in Sodom and
Gomorrah and ancient Babylon can
never find repetition in this wonder
land of progress. So if our neighbor
will take blue pill and get it's liver in .
working order, it will discover that the
moral atmosphere is in much purer
condition than its distorted Imagination
has pictured it.
MALODOROUS MARLBOROUGH
There is a certain person now at an
Eastern watering place who has led
such life of debauchery that even in
his own country, England, not over
scrupulous,h he is stunned by all respect
able people. Though nominally a gem
tleman. he is as little fit to wear the